World of Warcraft: The Priest
Copyright 2005-2006 Dane Leach
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0. Version History
1. Why a Priest?
2. What Race?
3. Spells
4. Talents
5. Playing
6. PVP
7. Professions
8. Items
9. Thanks
0. Version History
Version 1.1
Changed after 1.10, major overhaul of guide.
Previous versions:
Many E-Mails incorporated, many changes made, guide written.
1. So, you're at that character screen, and you're rolling your first
character, or maybe you're looking to try something new. Why a priest?
Well, let me clear a few things up. You won't be a slave to healing as
much of the time as you might think. As a matter of fact, until 60,
when you're on your own, you've got an excellent repertoire of damage
spells, healing just being serious icing on the cake. Priests have a
great way to run away from a fight when things begin to become terribly
wrong, what with their fear, power word: shield, and whatnot. Priests
are loved. You will not have too much of a problem getting into group,
whereas the stereotypical shaman/paladin/rogue might be deterred
because there are already a gajillion of them wanting to do whatever
instance it is. Not only that, but as a primary healer you'll get into
instances that are usually too high for you just because healers are
often needed. Of course, as a healer you'll have to go through the
unfortunate "Rofl n00b, lern2heal, rofflecopter, he wiped us." Most of
the time, if they're complaining, they deserve their death. What else
is there to love about priests? Just about everything. In short: We
heal, we damage, we get easy invites, we're flexible, we rock.
2. You're still looking at the character screen, and maybe are thinking
about a priest. Even so, what race? What faction? I must briefly give a
personal statement on factions: Every time an Alliance character is
rolled, a kitten dies. That being said, there are two very viable
choices for Priests, one on each side.
Alliance: The Dwarf
Short and stocky, the dwarf nonetheless makes an exceptional priest.
There are two reasons for this-the first being Desperate Prayer, a
spell available only to humans and dwarves.. This is an instant heal
that costs no mana and heals the caster for a goodly amount. It does,
however, have a terribly long cooldown. The second reason that dwarves
are good is because they have Fear Ward. This allows them to dispel a
fear effect, and it is beyond valuable, in PVP especially, and quite
useful outside of that. The downside? Dwarves are unfortunately
Alliance, so should you roll one, a kitten will die.
Horde: The Undead
Humanoid and dead, the dwarf is a fearsome Priest, and the best PVP
choice you can make, priest-wise. Devouring Plague is the first of
multiple reasons. Devouring Plague is a DoT (Damage over Time) that
heals you of all the damage it deals. It is excellent. It is great,
mighty, amazing. Next, the Undead get a fear counter that's laps the
dwarve's racial across the face. Will of the Forsaken gets rid of fear,
charm, sleep, etc. Undead get 10 Shadow resistance, also useful. And we
get the greatest taunt ever-cannibalize.
Some people will talk about how their Night Elf or Troll priest is the
best possible race. This is not true. If you like how one looks, or
whatever, go ahead. Race is hardly anything in this game. (As it should
be in life.)
3. So maybe I've convinced you and you're making your Undead Priest.
You want to know more about how these spells work. What does what. Or
maybe you're 8/8 Transcendence and reading this FAQ for a good laugh.
Nonetheless, here are the spells, their uses, etc, listed by skill
type.
Holy (Heals)
Abolish/Cure Disease: It gets rid of any diseases. This is a spell that
doesn't need anymore explanation.
Flash Heal: The speediest of your bulk heals, at a 1.5 casting time it
will save your/someone's life in a heartbeat. Often time it goes Power
Word: Shield, Flash Heal, Renew, and then maybe a Flash Heal and the
near-dead are fully healthy and fight-ready.
Lesser Heal/Heal/Greater Heal: The lengthiest of your bulk heals, it is
a whopper. This is the heal you use when you have the time to cast it.
It's mana-efficient and really shoots up health. This should basically
be saved for the tank (e.g. Warrior, maybe a bear Druid or Paladin.)
Holy Fire: A damage spell that drops a DoT, this is only really ever
useful if you get the talents to buff it up.
Holy Nova (Talent): An instant cast small heal/small damage AoE (Area
of Effect) spell that causes no threat, this is great. Easily spammable
in tight quarters when surrounded by friends and foes to great effect.
Of course, be careful to watch you mana, because this is a serious mana
sink.
Lightwell (Talent): It seems to strike me as pretty mediocre, since you
have to focus on it actively to be healed, and doesn't seem like the
best expenditure of points. That's just my call, though.
Prayer of Healing: This is a spell that heals everybody in your party.
It is a high-cost spell, but when a lot of people are taking damage, it
actually winds up being quite mana-efficient. It is great to combine
with the talent "Inner Focus" that reduces the mana cost of a spell to
0 and increases its crit. chance by 25%. Lots of potential crits.
there, on 5 targets. That's further amplified if you have the talent
"Inspiration" in Holy. An excellent spell.
Renew: This is your HoT. Cast it when people just start taking damage.
It winds up healing quite a bit, and it doesn't cause too much aggro.
when used. A great spell, and one you should use frequently.
Resurrection: Resurrects a player when out of combat. Necessary. The
end.
Spirit of Redemption (Talent): Allows you to keep on casting spells for
10 secs. after you die, free of mana cost. Great. Excellent. If you're
going Holy, get this talent.
Smite: Your basic Holy damage spell, just a tad worse than Mind Blast,
but with no cooldown.
Discipline: (Buffs and misc. spells)
Dispel Magic: Dispels up to two harmful spells on you, based on spell
rank, or removes two beneficial spells on an opponent. This is vital,
both in and out of PVP. It is mana effective to get rid of DoTs and
useful to get rid of buffs that others may have. It's also an instant
cast, which is quite useful.
Divine Spirit (Talent): Buffs up your Spirit. Nice. Nothing more to
say, it's your call to get or not.
Inner Fire: This is an instant cast spell that buffs up your armor and
attack power. Useful. Keep it up when you can, preferably starting it
outside of combat.
Inner Focus (Talent): This is a spell that reduces the mana cost of
your next spell by 100% and increases its chance to get a crit. by 25%.
This is an amazing spell. It's an extra cast of some mana-costly spell
that you get to use every five minutes. Think Prayer of Healing,
Devouring Plague, Mindblast, Greater Heal when using this spell, though
it can be used really on anything.
Levitate: Float, above water, etc. Very fun skill. Keep your light
feathers.
Mana Burn: Your weapon against Paladins and Druids, burns away their
mana and deals damage for the mana they lose. Try not to use it on
mages, because they cast out damage to quickly. It's a great PVP spell,
almost unusable in PVE, though.
Power Infusion (Talent): An instant cast spell that increases the
target's damage and healing by 20% for 15 secs. This is amazing. Drops
this on a mage, keep him healed and shielded, and watch the AoE damage
roll out. This is an intensely great spell.
Power Word: Shield: Makes a shield around the target that absorbs
damage. An instant cast. Great for tough situations, and great to use
on casters. Even more excellent when talents are used towards improving
it.
Prayer/Power Word: Fortitude: Buffs up your HP, or the target's, by
quite a bit. A must-have buff to have and to keep on.
Shackle Undead: Keeps an undead target rooted in place. This is
amazingly useful when around the undead. It's great, use it when you
can.
Shadow (Damage Spells)
Fade: Reduces your aggro. greatly while it's up. Monsters attacking you
will usually attack someone else. Use this when you're being attacked
in a party. No use Soloing, that I know of.
Mind Blast: The priest's best damage spell. Quick cast, long cooldown.
Use talents to buff it up if you're going Shadow.
Mind Control: Controls a humanoid mind. Use this wisely. Start off with
it, and let one mob kill the other off, or greatly weaken it. Be
warned, if it lives, it will be almost impossible too take the aggro.
off of you from it. Great way to pull, often. Use it on players, also,
though you can't use their abilities.
Mind Flay (Talent): Slows down a target and deals damage. A great mana-
efficient damage spells. Helps prevent monsters and players from
running away.
Mind Soothe: Reduces the aggro. radius of a humanoid. Good for
stealthing past things to get resources or whatever.
Mind Vision: You can see through the target's eyes. Use it as you like.
Psychic Scream: Your fear, it's greatly useful as a crowd-control and
to escape and whatnot. Be wary, as feared monsters can pull more
monsters if they run too close to them. Be very careful about using
this in instances, as it can cause a wipe very quickly.
Shadow Protection: A buff that buffs up your Shadow resistance. Useful
in some cases and in PVP.
Shadow Word: Pain: Your main DoT. Keep it up, it's very damage/mana-
efficient. Plus, a DoT prevents rogues from stealthing for longer than
the first tick of the spell.
Shadowform (Talent): A spell that shifts you into a form that deals 15%
more shadow damage, reduces physical damage by 15%, and does not allow
you to cast Holy spells. Very useful, especially when soloing. You can
always drop it off in a second if you need to heal. Don't expect to be
healing in it, because you can't.
Silence (Talent): Silences the target for 5 secs. Great against mages
and casters. Get it if you're going shadow, it's amazing.
Vampiric Embrace (Talent): Converts 20% (to a potential 30%) into an
additional heal onto your entire party. Great for shadow, especially
with Shadowform. Quite the excellent talent, get it if you're well
focused in shadow.
4. So, here are the talents:
Information from:
http://www.thottbot.com/
http://wowvault.ign.com/
wow.allakhazam.com
http://db.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/world_of_warcraft_talent.tx
t
The format, however, is mine.
Discipline
(Effects are per Rank)
Unbreakable Will-5 Ranks: Increase your chance to resist Stun, Fear &
Silence effects by 3%.
Wand Specialization-5 Ranks: Increases your damage with wands by
5%/Rank.
Talents Requiring 5 Points in Discipline
Silent Resolve-5 Ranks: Reduces the threat generated by your spells by
4%.
Martyrdom-2 Ranks: Gives you a 50% chance to gain the Focused Casting
effect that lasts for 6 seconds after being the victim of a critical
strike. The Focused Casting effect prevents you from losing casting
time when taking damage, and prevents interrupt effects by 10%.
Improved Power Word: Shield-3 Ranks: Increases the benefit of PW: S by
5%.
Improved Power Word: Fortitude-2 Ranks: Increases the effect of your
Power Word: Fortitude & Prayer of Fortitude spells by 15%.
Talents Requiring 10 Points in Discipline
Inner Focus-1 Rank: When activated, reduces the Mana cost of your next
spell by -100% & increases its critical effect chance by 25% if it is
capable of a critical effect.
Meditation-3 Ranks: Allows 5% of your Mana regeneration to continue
while casting.
Talents Requiring 15 Points in Discipline
Mental Agility-5 Ranks: Reduces the mana cost of your instant cast
spells by 2%.
Improved Inner Fire-3 Ranks: Increases the effects of your Inner Fire
spells by 10%.
Improved Mana Burn-2 Ranks: Reduces the casting of your Mana Burn by
0.25 secs.
Talents Requiring 20 Points in Discipline
Mental Strength-5 Ranks: Increase your maximum mana by 2%.
Divine Spirit-1 Rank: (Requires 3 points in Meditation) A buff that
buffs the target's Spirit.
Talents Requiring 25 Points in Discipline
Force of Will-5 Ranks: Increases your spell damage by 1% & the critical
strike chance of your offensive spells by 1%.
Talents Requiring 30 Points in Discipline
Power Infusion-1 Rank: (Require 5 points in Mental Strength) Increases
the target's damage and healing by 20% for 15 secs.
Holy
(Effects are per Rank)
Improved Renew-3 Ranks: Increases the amount healed by your Renew spell
by 5%.
Holy Specialization-5 Ranks: Increases the critical effect chance of
your Holy spells by 1%.
Healing Focus-2 Ranks: 35% chance to avoid interruption when casting a
healing spell.
Talents Requiring 5 Points in Holy
Divine Fury-5 Ranks: Reduces the casting time of your Heal, G. Heal,
Smite, and Holy Fire spells by 0.1 secs.
Spell Warding-5 Ranks: Reduces Spell Damage taken by 2%.
Talents Requiring 10 Points in Holy
Holy Nova-1 Rank: AoE Damage/Heal spell.
Inspiration-3 Ranks: Increases your target's armor by 8.33% for 15
seconds after getting a critical effect from your Flash Heal, Heal,
Greater Heal, or Prayer of Healing spell.
Blessed Recovery-3 Ranks: After being hit by a crit. strike, heals
8.33% of the damage taken over 6 secs.
Talents Requiring 15 Points in Holy
Searing Light-2 Ranks: (Requires 5 points in Divine Fury) Increases the
damage of your Smite and Holy Fire spells by 5%.
Holy Reach-2 Ranks: Increases the distance of your Smite, Holy Fire,
Prayer of Healing, and Holy Nova by 10%.
Improved Healing-3 Ranks: Reduces the Mana cost of your Lesser Heal,
Heal, & Greater Heal spells by 5%.
Improved Flash Heal-2 Ranks: Gives you a 35% chance to avoid
interruption caused by damage while casting Flash Heal.
Talents Requiring 20 Points in Holy
Spiritual Guidance-5 Ranks: 5% of your Spirit goes to +healing/+spell
damage.
Improved Prayer of Healing-2 Ranks: Reduces the Mana cost of your
Prayer of Healing spell by 10%.
Spirit of Redemption-1 Rank: Upon death, allows you to cast spells free
of cost for 10 secs.
Talents Requiring 25 Points in Holy
Spiritual Healing-5 Ranks: Increases healing done by 2%
Talents Requiring 30 Points in Holy
Lightwell-1 Rank: (1 Point in Spirit of Redemption Required) Makes a
clickable HoT well.
Shadow
(Effects are per Rank)
Spirit Tap-5 Ranks: Gives you a 20% chance to gain a 100% bonus to your
Spirit after killing a target that yields experience. For the duration,
your Mana may regenerate at a 50% rate while casting. Lasts 15 seconds.
Blackout-5 Ranks: Gives your Shadow damage spells a 2% chance to stun
the target for 3 seconds.
Talents Requiring 5 Points in Shadow
Shadow Affinity-3 Ranks: Reduces the threat generated by your Shadow
spells by 8.33%.
Improved Shadow Word: Pain-2 Ranks: Increases the duration of your
Shadow Word: Pain spell by 3.0 secs..
Shadow Focus-5 Ranks: Reduces your target's chance to resist your
Shadow spells by 2%.
Talents Requiring 10 Points in Shadow
Improved Psychic Scream-2 Ranks: Reduces the cooldown of your Psychic
Scream spell by 2.0 secs..
Improved Mind Blast-5 Ranks: Reduces the cooldown of your Mind Blast
spell by 0.5 secs..
Mind Flay-1 Rank: Assault the target's mind with Shadow energy, causing
75 Shadow damage over 3 seconds & slowing the target to 50% of their
movement speed.
Talents Requiring 15 Points in Shadow
Improved Fade-2 Ranks: Increases the duration of your Fade ability by
5.0 secs..
Shadow Reach-3 Ranks: Increases the range of your Shadow damage spells
by 6.66%.
Shadow Weaving-5 ranks: Your Shadow damage spells have a 20% chance to
cause your target to be vulnerable to Shadow damage. This vulnerability
increases the Shadow damage dealt to your target by 3% & lasts 15
seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
Talents Requiring 20 Points in Shadow
Silence-1 Rank: (2 Points in Improved Psychic Scream required) Silences
the target, preventing them from casting spells for 5 seconds.
Vampiric Embrace-1 Rank: Afflicts your target with Shadow energy that
causes all party members to be healed for 20% of any Shadow damage you
deal for 60 seconds.
Improves Vampiric Embrace-2 Ranks: (1 Point in VE required) Increases
the effects of your vampiric embrace by 5%.
Talents Requiring 25 Points in Shadow
Darkness-5 Ranks: Increases your Shadow spell damage by 2%.
Talents Requiring 30 Points in Shadow
Shadowform-1 Rank: Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage
by 15% & reducing Physical damage done to you by -15%. However, you may
only cast Shadow and Discipline spells while in this form.
Talent Builds:
Well, for leveling up to 60, nothing beats Shadow. Nor will you ever
much miss any of the healing benefits you might get from holy and
discipline much.
So without further ado:
Levels 10-19
5/5 Spirit Tap
2/2 Imp. SW: Pain
3/5 Blackout
Levels 20-29
1/1 Mind Flay
4/5 Imp. Mind Blast
2/2 Imp. Psy. Scream
3/3 Shadow Reach
Levels 30-39
1/1 Silence
1/1 V. Embrace
2/2 Imp. V. Embrace
1/5 Shadow Weaving
5/5 Darkness
Levels 40-49
1/1 Shadowform
5/5 Wand Specialization
The remaining +4 to Shadow Weaving, making it 5/5
Levels 50-59
The remaining +2 to Blackout, making it 5/5
The remaining +1 to Imp. Mind Blast, making it 5/5
The remaining 7 Talent Points can go into whatever best suits your play
style at this point: Imp. PW: Shield and Imp. PW: Fortitude come to
mind, along with Inner Focus.
Level 60
Most likely time to re-spec. unless you're staying Shadow.
What's easily tinkerable here: 4/5 Imp. Mind Blast as opposed to 5/5,
Shadow Weaving Points, Imp. V. Embrace.
So, what to re-spec. to at 60? I personally recommend some sort of
healing oriented build, but that's your call. Healers will succeed in
PVP and out. What I've been playing ATM, and works nicely:
5/5 Unbreakable Will
3/3 Imp. PW: Shield
2/2 Imp. PW: Fortitude
1/5 Silent Resolve, can go 1 / 2 Martyrdom
1/1 Inner Focus
3/3 Meditation
5/5 Mental Agility
5/5 Mental Strength
5/5 Force of Will
1/1 Power Infusion
3/3 Imp. Renew
5/5 Holy Specialization
5/5 Divine Fury
1/1 Holy Nova
4/5 Spell Warding (Changeable for Healing Focus or Inspiration or
Divine Spirit.)
2/2 Searing Light
I personally love this build for healing in PVP and out. It's your call
at this point, though. Many people like a 25 Disc/26 Holy build.
5. Playing (Soloing and Partying)
Try and grind mobs at your levels or 1-3 lower than you when not
questing. Use your wand constantly, it will save you mana and keep your
downtime minimal. Carry water with you for when you do have to
downtime. For a basic attack setup: Mind Blast, V. Embrace/PW: Shield,
Mind Flay, SW: Pain, Mind Blast once more, and then wand to death, with
maybe another damage spell as needed. Don't worry about losing a bit of
health. Stay in Shadowform when you get it, drop V. Embrace whenever
you can and it's not up. Rinse and repeat.
For partying, Flash Heals on the casters, Renews and Greater Heals on
the tank when he's taking slow but steady damage, Flash Heals for the
faster damage, PW: Shield when a target is in trouble, Fade when you
get aggro, drop Renews while you wait to cast your larger heals, Prayer
of Healing when everyone's taken a little bit of damage and the damage
isn't being dealt out quickly. Inner Focus and Prater of Healing is
amazing, mana-efficient, and with Inspiration, truly awesome. Conserve
mana. Wait to regen. Mana when things are going slowly.
6. PVP
In short? Mana burn the Paladins and Priests, DPS the mages and
warlocks, DoT the Rogues and Warriors, Outlast the Druids, and DPS and
DoT the hunters at close range. Shamans? No idea. Fear everything as
often as you can. In BGs, healing will make friends and do quite well.
Others have given me PVP advice far better than my own, so without
further ado:
Now, I got a great E-Mail from a reader with comments on PVP that are
well worth reading. (Pre 1.10, but his advice is still quite valid.)
From Orca782:
"As you can imagine, I'm shadow, 18/33 Disc/shadow (for improved inner
fire, helps a ton against melee). So just as a disclaimer, the matchups
I write about are for a shadow priest.
Note on Priest PVP:
Priests are casters, which means most of our spells require the enemy
to be in front of us to hit. The other player knows this, and rogues,
warriors, paladins, even druids will constantly move around right on
top of you so it is very hard to get a solid cast off. For this reason,
do not attempt to mind blast, or any other long casting time spell on
them when they are on top of you. Simply mind flay, as it auto targets
them. Fear, then mind flay for awhile (mind flay will not break fear),
and finish off with a mind blast, should be your standard zerg (mind
blast WILL break fear).
-If you come upon someone out in the wild, and you see them first, your
objective (besides warriors) should always be to fear them. That gives
you 8 seconds to buff yourself, mind flay and dot them, and then mind
blast them. Make sure to dot rogues quickly as they may trinket out of
fear and vanish.
Warriors: Depending on how well equipped the warrior is, this should be
one of your easiest battles. The first thing you want to do is throw
either a mindblast then Shadow Word Pain on them, or just the shadow
word pain if they see you first (and make casting difficult). Make sure
your shield is up, and you have inner fire going. Now you can try to
fear them after the inevitable first charge, but any warrior worth his
salt will break out of it right away in berserker stance. You want to
mind flay him while he's far away from you, and ideally by the time he
gets back to you his life is rather low and you can just reapply shield
if you need to, and continue to mind flay. Keep in mind that once your
life gets to about 20% they are going to spam execute and you will die
very fast, so try to keep your life around 35%. Use health items if you
have to, you shouldnt run out of mana vs a warrior. Now, if the warrior
is packing The Untamed Blade, a rank 14 weapon, or that new Black Wing
Lair Nefarion sword, you are in trouble, and you're going to have to
pop every health item in the book otherwise he's going to out dps you
and you'll lose. Well equipped warriors are (in my opinion) the primary
PVP class as it now stands.
Paladins: I play horde so I fight quite a few paladins. Or should I say
I try to fight them. Against a paladin, you might as well just leave
them alone and save yourself a long fruitless battle. Or you could
buckle down and try this. Shadow word pain rank 9 costs you something
insane like 400 mana. Shadow word Pain rank 1 costs something like 50
mana. Most paladins don't care which one you put on them because they
will just cleanse it. However, beating a paladin is all about running
him out of mana, so you spam that rank 1 swp and he'll keep cleansing
it at around 200 mana a cleanse. Even better you put a shadow
vulnerability debuff on him each time, so if he leaves it there your
spells hit harder. Fear the paladin whenever possible, and try to get a
mana burn or two off. Make sure to dispel them at the start of battle
for they are sure to have some amazing buffs on. If they are in epic
gear their regen will be quite high already, so you have to get them
low on mana then nuke them with what mana you have left (fear them, and
mind flay into a mind blast). They'll probably pop the shield at that
point and bandage, or heal. Then you have to zerg them again. Then
they'll do Lay on Hands and go up to full health again. So, bottom line
you have to kill them 3 times, and as a shadow priest your mana pool is
usually not up to the task. But you are welcome to try. Non epic
paladins should go down fast with low mana regen, just silence them
after they bubble and zerg em.
Druids:
Druids are slightly more feasible than Paladins, but not much. They
will see you and either go cat form or Bear form. Make sure to dispel
them once to get rid of mark of the wild. Cat form will deal more
damage to you, and move faster, whereas bear form will have more hit
points. It comes down to about the same, the big thing is that if they
ever throw a heal over time on themselves, dispel it. Keep shadow word
pain on them, fear whenever possible, and when they come out of animal
form at low life to throw that Natures Swiftness Full Heal on
themselves, you should be one step ahead of them and have them
silenced. At this point they are in caster form, have very little life
and one mind blast should finish them. The hardest druids I have fought
simply pull the 'healbot' routine, and heal themselves if they ever
drop below 70% life. They can innervate themselves, I cannot. So I run
out of mana trying to kill them before they run out of mana healing
themselves. Either way, similar to paladins druids dps is very weak so
if you fail to kill them you have a fairly safe bet at running away
(fear, and dispel their roots).
Mage:
Even epic mages, rank 14 mages, whatnot, should be a rather easy
matchup for a pvp geared priest. A lot of mages like to pull the old
'Sheep and Nuke' routine. If you were a PVE priest then you'd die, no
question. But as a pvp priest, with fortitude your hit points should be
in the order of 4000-5000hp. So if they do sheep you, make sure to
shield yourself right after you get hit by their first spell, then
silence them to prevent them from burning cooldown after cooldown until
you die. After they are silenced, you have 5 seconds to run to them and
fear them. Shadow word pain them while you run to them. After they are
feared it's basically lights out for them, you can eithre bandage or
finish them off. I usually opt to finish them off. Most mages don't
have much hp, and you can mind flay them into a mind blast that will
drop them. Even if they get out of fear the worst thing they can do to
you is iceblock to get rid of your dot's. Once they get out of iceblock
they'll either aoe or blink away and run for it, either way keep your
shield up and you should be fine.
Warlock:
Warlocks seem to me to be one of the top pvp classes, right up there
with well geared warriors. They are especially nasty towards priests,
if their Felhunter is out. My advice is to not even bother going for
them if Felhunter is out. What will happen, you ask? Well, their
felhunter will eat your shield and fortitude, and shadow protection.
Then it will silence you. The warlock meanwhile will be terrorizing you
(unbreakable fear effect) so you can't do anything, and delivering
shadow bolts with hit for an average of 2000 damage). Some less
intelligent warlocks will throw their standard DOTs on you, but the
only one to worry about is curse of agony, which sucks anyway. The
Shadow Resistance curse is the one to worry about. Everything else can
be dispelled. Warlocks also have a sort of shadow damage shield they
can use, so the bottom line is there's no way in hell you are going to
kill them before they kill you. If they don't have Felhunter out,
they'll still be tough but it's worth a shot. If they have succubus,
try to fear both the warlock and the succubus. Trinket out of charm, if
you get charmed. Dispel any debuffs they use like Corruption or Siphon
Life. Try to fear them and keep them DOT'd.
J.B. also gave me great advice:
Warlock
Dispel their DOTs and use Will of the Forsaken if you have it. Just
keep on dispelling their DOTs when you can. Mana Burn is relatively
useless--'Locks almost never use up all of their mana. Also, since my
knowledge on Warlocks is somewhat limited, J.B. (Since he didn't want
his name mentioned, and never gave me a different name, I'm going to
abbreviate it.) offered me GREAT advice:
"Hmm, even as a Warlock I do find a skilled Priest the most difficult
class to fight. Then again, so are the other classes. I can only tell
you what some Warlocks will bring to the fight. I'll make it short.
- One of the Warlock pets to watch out for is the Felhunter. It has
Devour Magic (a slower version of Dispel), and Spell-Lock. Spell-Lock
silences casters for 3 seconds and if they are caught casting spells,
it will shut down the entire spell-tree for 8 seconds (doesn't work on
insta-casts). Also, if you are fighting Demonology Warlocks, the
Felhunter will give 1 All-Resist for each level. (up to 60 resists on
all)
- Warlocks that specced to Demonology will have Soul link. Soul Link
is one of the most powerful defensive spells against other classes. It
absorbs all damage by 50%, giving the lvl 60 Warlock practically 8000
HP. Only those that speced to Demonology will have it. Unfortunetly,
it is also a magic buff. >:
- Destruction Warlocks are about burning targets down as fast as
possible."
Thanks a lot, J.B., great advice.
Orca782's comment, continued:
Priest:
Against another shadow priest, it's usually about the gear. Whoever can
lay down more damage faster will win. Make sure to debuff their
fortitude and shield, as well as shadow protection. Use rank 1 shadow
word pain again to keep the debuff on them, and ideally keep them on
the defensive. Fear them and mind flay, mindblast. If they ever leave
shadow to heal, that's when to use the silence. If it's going badly,
silence them and run for it.
Against a holy priest, it's tough going. Holy priests eat dirt to just
about any class except shadow priests. Shadow priests just can't lay
down the damage as fast as mages or warlocks, so the holy priest can
usually heal themselves enough to stay up. A smart holy priest won't
even try to damage you, they'll just heal and renew themselves. As a
holy priest they will have more mana than you, and when you run out of
mana you can either run, or wait around for their pitifully weak dot's
and mind blasts to kill you.
Rogue:
Rogues are another cakewalk, which is nice. The other casters fear
rogues, but shadow priests simply laugh them off. A rogue will either
open with cheapshot or ambush. The only difference between the two is
how long you have to wait to kill them. Either way, fear them when you
get out of stunlock, DOT them, and lay down the damage. Shield, and
they shouldnt be able to kill you before you kill them. Most rogues use
health items of all sorts while I simply sit behind my shield and
shadow form (damage reduction) and burn them away.
Hunters:
Hunter's are not fun. First thing you want to do to a hunter, as
always, is fear him. However they often make this hard by wing clipping
you. Wing clip takes longer to fire off, so most hunters only use
concussive shot to slow you down. Dispel this and keep charging at
them. As always, ignore their pet. If you get close enough to fear
them, you've pretty much won. Throw the dot's on them mind flay and
mind blast, and reshield. They should be low enough in life to burn
down at this point. However, if they feign death while you are running
at them, they are laying an ice trap. If concussive shot stays on you
for too long, if they wing clip you, or if you get stuck in an ice
trap, they will run away again. As long as they are at a range, not
feared, they will out dps you and you will die, not to mention they
will Viper Sting your mana away. So with hunters it's all about getting
in close and getting that fear off. Usually fear will fear the pet too
so you can just blow them away while they run around.
Shamans:
I leave shamans for last because I'm horde and I have minimal
experience with them. From what I've heard, shamans are pretty tough.
They will purge your buffs, and shock you for quite a bit of damage.
Then they will melee you while you try to cast, and heal themselves, as
well as lay totems which will inevitably mess you up. I'd advise just
sticking with the general formula, fear them and lay the dot's. As long
as they are feared they can't do anything, and you should be able to
burn them down. If they start laying totems and healing and such, it's
time to run for it." Thanks for the great info., Orca782!
7. Proffesions
If you want to start making money quickly, take either:
(Mining or Herbalism) and Skinning, and sell the resources on the AH.
Or if you want to make a decent amoun of cash, not exceptional, but
decent, and still have a creating proffesion, try
(Mining or Skinning) and Tailoring.
A great way to make cash in the long haul and extraordinarilly useful
Proffesion combination is Alchemy and Herbalism.
An exspensive, but eventually in a looong while off, is Tailoring and
Enchanting. Very exspensive to start off, though.
Your call ultimately, I chose Alchemy and Herbalism and have loved it.
8. Items (A quick note)
Stamina, Intellect, Spirit
For soloing: get Intellect and Spirit first, Stamina second.
For PVP: Intellect and Stamina, both equally important. No need to
worry about Spirit.
For parties: Same as soloing.
Staffs are the way to go, on a whole, though occasionally you'll get
some sort of interesting main hand/off-hand combination.
Get the best wand you can buy or find; they're a great source of DPS
that is mana free-conveniently allowing you to regen. Your mana while
still doing a good amount of DPS.
9. Thanks
Thanks to Blizzard for making such an excellent game. Gamefaqs, and all
the guides here for being there in times of need. ^_^. Thanks for
reading this. To all my friends and guildies.
Feel free to contact me by e-mail or online.
Charname: Fenriz
Server: Gorefiend
All E-Mails are greatly appreciated, whether they're good or bad! I
love reading 'em, so send 'em. :).
